To think droves of teachers will make the decision by husband made today- to leave

[Peakyshelby]

Well after 6 years of teaching my husband has broken down, gone to the doctors, been signed off and says he is done.

he has done 3 years in 2 schools and then done supply for 3 years. There is too much to list but the highlights have been

been told to go and fuck himself and other insults thrown at him by kids with hardly any consequences from parents and schools

having stuff chucked at him

having to appear as a witness in court when a parent beat up his own child at home time in the playground

having parents create a smear group on WhatsApp against him and 2 other newly qualified teachers because the parents said there little darlings behaviour must be down to inexperienced teachers not being able to handle them.

having parents laugh and him and tell him he is picking on their little darlings by trying to sanction them.

have children laughing at him and saying my mum and dad don’t care what I do

hardly any support from above.

There is too much more to write but today he had a 10 year old child walk up to him and pour a water bottle over his head.

he is done. He qualified with a group of 10 others and 8 of them have since quit. 2 did not get through there NQT year.

He says the system is broken

Sorry to hear all that. My DS is a teacher and I know it's tough.
Apparently Labour are going to recruit 6000 new teachers. If they looked after the ones they have there would be no need.

My husband has been assaulted 3 times this year and called a nonce more times than he cares to remember. Hes also been consistently bullied by his line manager (vice principal) with 0 consequences. He moved schools and she followed him.

If he could quit he would but we have a huge mortgage and 3 small children.

Couldn’t have made a worse career choice!

YANBU. I am a TA who has been punched, kicked, bitten, spat at, told to fuck off on many occasions, had a jug of water thrown at me, chairs thrown footballs kicked directly at me. I’ve been off sick for two weeks with stress. I’m done also. I don’t blame your DH one bit. I was looking to get on to ITT but not anymore. Fuck that.

I qualified 25 years ago and didn't go into it then, a decision I have never once regretted. Only a small handful of our cohort still teach. I am so sorry for your DH and every other teacher out there that has put up with this shit.

What on earth? That is terrible. I don't recognise these behaviours from the schools my children attend. Where does he teach? Could he move?

Teachers in my family don't describe this behaviour. It sounds awful. Perhaps changing school would do the trick, rather than changing direction altogether?

I think it hugely depends on the school and honestly I would actually never leave mine. It’s the only one I ever applied for and the only one I have ever taught in. It’s not perfect, but behaviour is generally very good and if it’s not, SLT will back you 100%. I don’t feel the same can be said for all schools at all, and I don’t even know which side the majority would fall into.

We have quite a high staff turnover (as I said, not perfect!!) and many of the ECTs who started after me have since left teaching, including my DP. I know loads of people I started my PGCE with 6 years ago who are no longer in teaching. There are many reasons for this - one of them nearly left due to awful behaviour and total lack of support, then tried another school and settled there. Lots have gone onto other educational roles, or have been tempted by the possible flexible working and good pensions of the civil service

I also feel like it’s quite rare to be actually specifically directed to complete tasks, like marking, which you are physically unable to complete within your paid hours. Every day. And then on top of that, being given insane projects a few times a year, like reports, which can take at LEAST 10+ hours, again without any pay! I cannot imagine this happening in the offices where many of my friends work.

Anyway, I can absolutely see why teachers leave, and I’ve heard from lots of people that behaviour is worse than ever. My class this year were certainly the hardest I’ve had. Over the years, as it has always been, many teachers will leave and many will stay. Unfortunately I can’t really see myself doing anything else. I hope your husband finds success elsewhere.

6 members of my former department are leaving and won't be back for September leaving 1 ECT and a long-term supply. Those teachers aren't newbies that can't hack it but people who have been teaching between 10 to 30 years and were the strongest department within the school. Some school culture from both management and students are completely toxic, why do the job when can earn more, have more flexibility and be more respected elsewhere.

hardly any support from above. This is actually the crux of it. (Though supply is brutal and to be avoided)

We're weirdly a home educating family that retreated from crap education, but that's produced 2 teacher/technical tutors, and has another two in training.
The already qualified pair wont touch any school were the SLT's aren't properly supporting them and their colleagues, and their career development. They are mentoring the younger two to take the same approach.

H is a teacher and thankfully hasn't had to deal with this shit, however a heavily pregnant friend teacher in a different area was punched in the belly twice, while the kids set fire to a bin. It's all fucked.

YANBU.

I'd rather clean bogs with my tongue than teach.

The kids behaviour sounds awful.

Its also really bad at my dc secondary (state) non stop swearing. Some constantly in exclusion room.

However it also sounds like this wasnt the job for your dh. 2 schools in 3 years. Then supply. It does sound like he might be struggling with experience.

Schools need to exclude permanently easier. Its a bit no shit sherlock if they dont get rid of the worst behaved even the ok behaved will get worse.

Much faster assessment and referral for sen needed too.

Exactly. There is no shortage of teachers in England, there is just a shortage of teachers who are prepared to teach in state schools.

Throwing bursaries at new graduates won’t make any difference when they won’t stay, it’s like tipping some more water into a fast-draining bucket with a socking great hole in the bottom.

Sadly, reading this was very familiar. I have taught at the same primary school for ten years and we are seeing unprecedented levels of violent, aggressive and verbally abusive behaviour. We have staff shortages across the school and cannot recruit support staff. Maternity leaves are being covered by unqualified teachers which doesn’t help. The career I loved has changed and I now feel like I spend most of my day fighting fires and trying to keep my volatile pupils regulated. It feels like teaching has gone out of the window.
I wish your husband all the best.

and people wonder why people do whatever the fuck they can to go privately.

Yes, and add on to the the hundreds of hours of pointless work created by HTs or MATs to "prepare for OFSTED" every term, rather than time being given to actual teaching.

As a pp allured to - Government after Government has come up with mad hat schemes to 'recruit new teachers' but no-one is willing to address the fact that no-one wants to stay.
I know of two ECTs who would make excellent teachers given 1/2 a chance who have walked away without even completing their ECT years this year, (despite both getting excellent reports from their schools, and both thinking they'd gone in with eyes open, having worked and volunteered before starting their training).

The whole system is broken.
I wish your dh well, and hope he finds a job where he is treated well.

I’m so sorry to hear this but sadly unsurprised. I work in a school office and we deal with bad attitudes and rotten emails on a daily basis and that wears me down as we work so hard to try and give our kids the very best but some parents are just out for a fight.

It sounds like parenting, rather than the system, is broken!

In 30 years time, when the current generation of school kids are grown up, I hope they study what the fuck went wrong in the parenting of their generation and what caused it. Or maybe they’ll actually agree that it was the system, and not them/their parents?

I can remember being in school. Can others not remember that? Can they, now they have the rose tinted glasses of procreation, not recall how shitty kids can be? And remember how their own parents disciplined them?

Or was my (that is, current parents of secondary aged children) generation actually the first affected by a shift in parenting? Was there something in the way we were raised (shifting to a very consumeristic lifestyle… facing “easy living” in comparison to the past/no true challenges… first generation of the internet and being connected to everything) that triggered our failures in parenting?

I left last year. My heart is still in the classroom but the lack of work/life balance was making me ill. I taught in special schools and for myself, there is nothing as rewarding. The biggest reason for my leaving was the lack of trained and appropriate support staff - you cannot do the job without them. So many experienced TAs left due to a low wage that doesn’t reflect their skills and qualities, combined with the challenge of doing the job of two after funding cuts. Too many untrained agency staff, with little training and sometimes less patience. I still feel guilt over prioritising my physical and mental health and leaving.

Your dh’s experience is dreadful. Why was there so little support from SLT?
I’m an invigilator and have also been told to ‘fuck off’ and had papers thrown at me. In this situation I request that SLT remove the pupil from the exam room. I now work in a college instead.

That sounds really awful. What is he up to next? Are there other teaching roles he can consider in nicer environments? Adult education or a better school. So sad to lose talented people from education

YANBU... working in a school is the worst at the moment. We need a serious change in accountability/attitude for parents who allow or seriously ignore disrespectful behaviour (said in a broad sense, I understand there are some situations where it's far trickier than that). Major changes in children's lifestyles and time spent on the Internet. Addressing the major effect the lock downs have had on a couple of age groups.

Just a general knowledge that NOBODY should have to endure physical or verbal abuse, and that children have to learn its unacceptable, or else we fail not just the teachers but the children too as they leave education.

Very unlikely, most teachers enjoy the holidays too much. U don’t go into teaching thinking it’ll b a breeze, sounds like it just wasn’t the correct job for him as the students didn’t respect him.

I taught for years in private and state schools, and the private schools are the place to go if you want decent behaviour and respect. Not all the kids in state schools were awful, by any stretch, but certainly a large enough proportion to make the job miserable. I found that it was having parents' expectations holding them to account that made a difference in private, though obviously it's great if SLT are also doing their job. And obviously not all kids in private school are perfect, but if they are going to get shit at home for their bad behaviour in school (who wants to waste tens of thousands on educating a kid that can't be arsed?), then it certainly helps motivate them to get on with their work and behave in a civilised manner.

It's SUCH a shame for the kids/ families in state schools who want to work. It is such a disruptive environment a lot of the time. If I could afford to privately educate mine I would, but instead we're homeschooling, as, having been "on the inside", like hell am I putting them in school with some of the behaviours I've experienced. (We actually started off with ours in state school, but after 2 years gave up and pulled them out, as it was just hideous for them).

I don't know what the solution is. Teachers can't be expected to work with kids like the ones mentioned in this thread - it is horrific - but I don't know how you get kids to stop being hideous if the parents don't care. Which sadly I think is the root cause of a lot of this predicament.

And none of the parents would ever admit that their precious little darlings were to blame. They're all just "spirited".